Modern Life

Raymond Depardon spends a decade observing farmers in the French highlands. His camera enters their homes and barns with respectful naturalness, capturing the measured rituals of milking, repairing machinery, and conversations at the kitchen table. The director doesn't interrogate; he listens—to monologues about survival, solitude, and passing on the land. New faces emerge: young families trying to put down roots on these harsh slopes. The film becomes a chronicle not just of labor, but of a vanishing way of life, where every handshake and gaze out the window speaks volumes.